India's Supreme Court will hear IEX challenge on market coupling
India's Supreme Court has agreed to hear Indian Energy Exchange's (IEX) challenge against a big rule change from the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).
This July 2025 order forces all power exchanges to use "market coupling," basically combining buy and sell orders from every exchange to set one single price.
The court declined to stay the February 13 APTEL order that allowed the regulator to proceed with market coupling implementation, which was scheduled to begin implementation from January 2026.
IEX objects CERC defends market coupling
IEX says this new system puts its more than 95% market share at risk and is not fair.
Their lawyer, Mukul Rohatgi, compared it to "Can you merge NSE and BSE together? If you pool all of them together, I will lose edge.", arguing it kills competition and hurts their edge.
CERC, on the other hand, sees market coupling as a mechanism that combines buy and sell orders from every exchange to set one single price.
Implementation was scheduled to begin in January 2026.